Headaches Suck

I got my first migraine as a teenager. Tunnel vision, nausea, light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, throbbing on one side of my head. I felt like I was dying. I had several years where I had them at least once a month. Generally, they were cyclic, about 2 weeks before I started my period. I also had food triggers, although I had to eat massive amounts of those...

As I got older and went on birth control, the migraines leveled out. Especially after I went on a progesterone only pill. Apparently, my body needs some extra estrogen though. I had several month of heavy menstruation, and not just a couple of day, I'm talking about 23 days of heavy bleeding in a month. So now I am on a super low dose of estrogen. Luckily, I am becoming more regular again. Unfortunately, I am having an increase in headaches.

On the plus side, I haven't had a severe migraine in a few months, since before I changed pills. On the downside, I get headaches at least once a week...I am not sure what is causing these. Maybe a little bit is from stress, maybe another piece is from having more estrogen, maybe another is just sheer exhaustion from trying to be and do everything. 

 Nothing seems to really help them. Except sleep. I get so wiped out from these type. And it's a different type of exhaustion. I don't really know how to describe it.The worst are the ones that wake me up. Sometimes, those are so bad I just want to curl up and cry. I hate getting out of bed to find the tylenol, and then I hurt so bad and feel so sick it takes forever to fall back to sleep. And I don't think those are migraines, the feel of them is completely different.

I try to avoid the analgesics, because you can actually compound the headaches with long term analgesic use. Aromatherapy helps some times helps, trigger point massage helps other times, naps have helped as well. There just doesn't seem to be anything that will help all the time.  I am looking into alternative ways of managing my less severe headaches. But let's face it, I have 2 growing boys, I can't always go into my bedroom and sleep it off. 

I know I am pretty lucky, in that I know what causes my migraines, and how to manage those. I know the warning signs, and the first signs of one developing, and I can generally ward those buggers off, or at least minimize the severity. The fact they have gotten less severe as I have gotten older helps a lot too. But I get so friggin tired of these niggling, annoying, pains that run from the base of my skull, down into my shoulder, and up into my forehead.